Many 'gods' -- choose one

[Zzyzx]

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From a current thread:

But have you ever explored any other religion to compare different gods before coming to your decision?

Has anyone here met or corresponded with a person who claimed to have compared gods before choosing one?

[Divine Insight]

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Has anyone here met or corresponded with a person who claimed to have compared gods before choosing one?

I was born into Christianity as a child. I was told that I would get a spanking if I didn't go to church with my parents. I was taught that it was "blaspheme" (a terrible sin) to question "God's authority".

Being brought up like this I simply wasn't given permission to "Chose a God" or even to chose to not believe in God. In fact, to even suggest that you might question the validity of the Biblical God or Jesus was instantly frowned upon and you were viewed as being "bad", having done something wrong if you did that.

So it wasn't until I became a free thinking adult that I even had the freedom to consider theologies from a genuinely intellectual and critical perspective.

In my case, I actually went the opposite directly and surrendered to Christianity entirely. I gave my heart mind and soul over to God and Jesus to do with as they so desire. And I was convinced that they wanted me to learn and teach the "Word of God" as it is written in the Bible.

So armed with the "Holy Spirit" as my guide I set out to understand "God's Work". This journey led me to the crystal clear and undeniable truth that the Bible cannot be the commandments, directives, or words of any God. It simply wasn't intelligent enough, nor was it moral enough. This is what the "Holy Spirit" within me guided me to discover.

Ironically this did not cause me to become an atheist. I still believed in a God, and a "Holy spirit". I simply realized that they clearly have nothing to do with any of the Abrahamic folklore.

I was happy to just forego religion altogether. After all I already had the Holy Spirit of God within me, why bother with religions?

However, intellectual curiosity got the better of me and I decided to look around at other world religions. I was mainly looking for a world religion that was more compatible with the actual "God" and "Holy Spirit" that lived within me.

So I wasn't searching for "God", I was just searching for a religion that might describe the God I already knew.

The closest thing I found to the God within me was Buddhism. So I did look into Buddhism quite deeply, including taking a college course on Buddhism. I was interested in the intellectual aspects of the theology. I also did a lot of meditation as well, to explore the mystical side of the faith.

I never became a Buddhist, in any religious sense. Nor was I interested in studying with any Buddhist monks to learn of their opinions and views. The intellectual college courses I took on Buddhism had already explained to me what I could expect Buddhist monks to believe.

Unfortunately, I found problems with Buddhist theologies, doctrines, and beliefs. While far better than the Abrahamic religions, it's still far from compelling.

While all this was happening I was also studying Physics and Chemistry and course on Computer Science and Critical Thinking, as well as many courses on Logic and Computer Programming, even courses on Artificial Intelligence.

Needless to say, I met many secularists on my academic journey. And the arguments for secularism are actually the best arguments to be found. They put religious mythologies to shame.

I should note here that secularism does not deny the potential existence of a mystical element to reality. Secularism simply points out that there is no credible evidence for such a thing, nor is there any need to postulate it. I agree.

None the less, it is fun to pretend that such a fantasy could be true. And being a "Romantic" at heart and a bit of a "Dreamer", I have no problem "pretending" that they could be such a thing as a higher being or beings. I also have no problem openly confessing and agreeing that this is indeed a wishful pretense. I do hold that some form of mystical magical essence to reality "could" potentially exist that we simply have no evidence for, nor a need to postulate. So with that in mind, I hold that my pretense of a higher essence of reality is not necessarily without merit. I see nothing wrong with pretending. And it shouldn't make one iota of difference whether I'm right or wrong. If it was nothing more than a pretense, then at least it was a fun experience, and that much was indeed "reality". So in this sense it serves a real-world purpose. It doesn't need to be true.

With all of the above said, I have chosen four Moon Goddesses of Wicca and my main deities for shamanic journeying with. and several Male Gods as well, along with some fairies and some other mystical creatures.

So I guess in this sense you could say that I have chosen my own "Gods".

However, those who understand this form of Eclectic Wicca will most likely know that none of these Moon Goddesses, Gods, or Fairies represent the actual source of reality. The source of reality in my form of Wicca is basically the same as in Buddhism. It's Aum. The vibration. And I'm it. Or at least part of it. And since a vibration has no parts if you're a part of it then you're it, because it has no parts.

So now you may return to you normally secluded materialistic reality.

Or to the imaginary form you have chosen for Aum.

[William]

[Replying to post 1]

Zzyzx: Has anyone here met or corresponded with a person who claimed to have compared gods before choosing one?

William: I myself am the only individual I have met who has compared god ideas and then chosen them altogether and added to these, through that process, as required.
It is an ongoing process which has helped quite significantly.

[Divine Insight]

[Replying to post 1]

Zzyzx: Has anyone here met or corresponded with a person who claimed to have compared gods before choosing one?

William: I myself am the only individual I have met who has compared god ideas and then chosen them altogether and added to these, through that process, as required.
It is an ongoing process which has helped quite significantly.

Are you talking about only people you've met in person?

The reason I ask is that are entire forums devoted to people who constantly compare god ideas. Chose from various eclectic ideas, and add to them what works for them. In fact, this is a very common practice among many mystics.

It's also basically what Buddha taught. Many people are unaware that the Buddha actually taught people to do precisely this. He taught them to never accept anything just because someone else claims it or teaches it, not even from him. Instead he taught them to seek what works for them and to not even be afraid to change as new information becomes available.

The Dalai Lama understands this and teaches a similar philosophy.

So it's hard to imagine that you've never met anyone who does this. Unless you're talking only about people you've met in person and just don't meet a lot of diverse people.

If you think you are alone in this process you might be pleasantly surprised to discover that this is actually a very common practice outside of the Abrahamic religions. Only within the Abrahamic circles do they frown on considering alternative ideas of God.

[William]

[Replying to post 4]

Divine Insight: So it's hard to imagine that you've never met anyone who does this. Unless you're talking only about people you've met in person and just don't meet a lot of diverse people.

William: I don't know what you mean by saying 'it's hard to imagine'. Perhaps you have never been in that place I am referring to? But even so, the imagination is powerful enough - ordinarily - that it shouldn't prove too difficult...

I was being literal. Which means that yes, the circles I frequent are small and diverse, but sitting around talking about god ideas isn't much of a factor.

My imagination takes care of this deficit. No problem.

[Willum]

I don’t even claim it was a big deal.
I experimented with different religions and even magic.
I guess none of them liked me, and my spells didn’t work.

[ttruscott]

But have you ever explored any other religion to compare different gods before coming to your decision?

Has anyone here met or corresponded with a person who claimed to have compared gods before choosing one?

Anyone who has met or corresponded with me certainly has... I spent many years reading and listening about the many Gods and their avatars etc. Some were easy to scorn, others were intriguing. I liked Tibetan Buddhism (no god) but Hinduism and ordinary Buddhism (we are god) was harder since i knew I had an evil side and could not get around the idea a God who was pure chose to be evil...

I met YHWH and become a follower...

[JehovahsWitness]

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From a current thread:

But have you ever explored any other religion to compare different gods before coming to your decision?

Has anyone here met or corresponded with a person who claimed to have compared gods before choosing one?

I examined the gods of all the major religious divisions before choosing to worship my God (JEHOVAH).



We are taught about the ancient gods in school (Zeus the pedophile, pan the sexual pervert, Molech the baby killer, Cronus the cannabalist...) none of those applealed.



The hindu sex and half human half animal gods seemed just a continuation of such pagan traditions



The Buddhist's god is no God at all and I knew there was no point in worshipping the creation rather than the creator and the shiks nameless God is so vague he is unknowable for all praticle purposes.


It seemed to me only the God of Abraham raised worship to a higher level, above that of creature worship, and invites his worshippers to get to know him by name.

So I did.




JEHOVAHS WITNESS



Two excellent books I can recommend are

Mankind's search for God (pub Jehovahs Witnesses availabe fre online audio/pdf)
https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/lv/r1/lp-e/0/56591

and Alexander Hislop's famous : The Two Babylons. (also free - downloadable from the internet)

Go to other posts related to ....

GOD, GODS and ...THE TRINITY

[Diagoras]

We are taught about the ancient gods in school (Zeus the pedophile, pan the sexual pervert, Molech the baby killer, Cronus the cannabalist...) none of those applealed.

Your school curriculum sounds rather unusual. Also, possibly biased. Maybe Pan’s association with nature, particularly woodland and pastures should have been emphasised more in your class, rather than the sexual perversions. Although, if the school didn’t have many shepherds or hunters, I suppose Pan might not be a good first choice for a god.

How much time did you devote to studying, for example, Hinduism? Did this involve spending time with an acharya, or understanding iconography like the placement of ashtadikpalas in a temple? I’m sure plenty of experiences that seem strange or foolish at first glance turn out to have deeper meaning once you put the effort in to understand them. And it’s not as if Christianity is somehow more easily understood - otherwise, what would be the point of all the ‘bible classes’ that exist to explain the subtleties of your religion?

Would you not agree that any ‘casual dismissal’ of a religion based on only a cursory understanding of it, is not desirable?

Presumably, having narrowed down your choices to the Abrahamic god, you were left with Judaism, Islam and several different denominations of Christianity from within one of its six major ‘ecclesiastico-cultural mega-blocs’, so there must have been other factors at play before you rejected these in turn and chose Jehovahs Witnessing.

[Zzyzx]

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Has anyone here met or corresponded with a person who claimed to have compared gods before choosing one?

I examined the gods of all the major religious divisions before choosing to worship my God (JEHOVAH).

Is this to say that your childhood was religion-free, with no preference shown by family or society toward any of the proposed 'gods'?

Did you as an adult begin studying 'gods' with no preconceived notions, no god stories in mind, no experience with or previous exposure to religions?